WUHAN, China (AP) – A team from the World Health Organization came out of quarantine in the Chinese city of Wuhan on Thursday to begin fieldwork on a mission to investigate the origins of the virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic.
The researchers, who were due to complete 14 quarantine days after arriving in China, left their quarantine hotel and boarded a bus in the middle of the afternoon.
The mission has become politically charged, as China seeks to avoid blame for alleged errors in its initial response to the outbreak. A big question is where the Chinese side will allow researchers to go and who they can talk to.
Yellow barriers blocked the hotel’s entrance, keeping the media at bay. Before the researchers boarded, workers in full protective gear could be seen carrying their luggage on the bus, including two musical instruments, a dumbbell and four yoga mattresses.
Hotel staff waved goodbye as the researchers boarded the bus, possibly bound for another hotel. The bus driver was wearing a white full-body protective suit. The researchers used face masks.
Earlier this month, former WHO official Keiji Fukuda, who is not part of the team in Wuhan, warned against the expectation of any progress, saying it could take years before any firm conclusions can be made about the origin of the virus.
“It’s been well over a year when it all started,” he said. “Much of the physical evidence will be gone. People’s memories are inaccurate and probably the physical layout of many places will be different from what they were and how people are moving, and so on. ”
Among the places they can visit are the Huanan Seafood Market, which was linked to many of the first cases, as well as research institutes and hospitals that treated patients at the height of the outbreak.
The mission came only after considerable disputes between the two sides, which led to a rare WHO complaint that China was taking too long to make the final arrangements.
China, which is vehemently opposed to an independent investigation that it cannot fully control, said the matter was complicated and that the Chinese medical team was concerned about new clusters of viruses in Beijing, Shanghai and other cities.
Although WHO was initially criticized, especially by the United States, for not being critical enough of the Chinese response, it recently accused China and other countries of moving too slowly at the beginning of the outbreak, obtaining a rare admission from the Chinese side that it could have been better.
Overall, however, China vehemently defended its response, possibly out of concern for reputation or even financial costs, should it be considered insufficient.
“WHO and global experts gave their full affirmation of the success of epidemic prevention in China and the work of tracing from previous sources,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian on Wednesday. “Both sides have a basic consensus on cooperation in research related to origins, and the related work is progressing smoothly.”
Chinese authorities and state media have tried to cast doubt on whether the virus started in China. Most experts believe it came from bats, possibly from southwest China or neighboring areas in Southeast Asia, before being passed on to another animal and then to humans.
The source search will try to determine where and exactly how it happened.
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Associated Press photographer Ng Han Guan contributed to this report.